Mounting the flap position sensor - 4 hours

 Before I start mounting things, I need to fabricate a control horn that I can mount to the WD-613-EF flap weldment. There's no real dimensions to work from, but from my initial prototypes, getting the control horn mount point closest to the center of the pivot point of the weldment is needed. So I made site the control horn was asymmetric. 

 

Next I marked lines on the flap position sensor to note the maximum and minimum travel limits of the sensor. 

I temporary clamped the assembly to the backrest brace and then used a 12V battery to raise and lower the flaps. Eventually I was able to dial in a sensor position and rod linkage length that would allow the flaps to travel to reach both min/max limits on the sensor.   

 I completed the final fitting of the control rod linkages, marked the sensor mount positions and drilled for #6 screws and bolted the assembly to the back brace. Everything works perfect!

Created angled mount for flap sensor - 3 hours

 One of the things I have been messing with for the last 6 months is 3D printing. I decided to design and print my sensor mount out of PLA plastic. The advantage of 3D printing is that I can make almost any small plastic part I would ever want, the disadvantage is that the PLA plastic is that it gets soft at temperatures at or above 60degC. So I have to be careful if where I use it. For the flap position sensor, I don't believe there to be an issue. As well, once I have the mount design I can easily print it in any number of various materials including those with higher heat ratings, and carbon fiber infused filaments. Thankfully Ray Allan Company provides excellent CAD drawings for the sensor. 

 I then could spend some time and work out the best angle for the sensor basically by printing a number of different prototypes and try each. I finally settled on a mount angle of 17deg. As well, I opened up the mounting holes in the sensor to allow for a #6 screw/bolt. 

 

 

Planning to mount the flap position sensor - 3 hours

I spent a couple of hours today planning on how I am going to mount the flap position sensor in the center console. This also included a run to the local hobby store to buy some 4-40 threaded rod and clevis ends as suggested by the Ray Allan instructions. 

 I really like some of the mounting options that folks have shown on Vans Airforce with an angled mount. In my opinion this gives a great action to the flap sensor mechanism. I decided to start designing an angled mount.